[okfn-discuss] Open Data Developments in Asia
abernard102@gmail.com 2013-09-27
Summary:
[Forwarded from the OKFN Discussion List] "The Open
Knowledge Conference this year attracted delegates from 68 countries,
indicating that Open Data is indeed becoming a global movement around the
world.
How is Open
Data adopted in Asia, the largest continent of this planet where 60 per cent of
the world population live?
Asia has
some of the most advanced internet economies as well as some of the least
developed countries with hardly any access to information or information
infrastructure, neither analogue nor digital.
At the
OKCon, 26 participants from 11 Asian countries were present, including Nepal, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, and Russia. In this blog, I focus on selected North and South East
Asian countries: New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea,
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, simply because getting reliable data from all 49 Asian countries would
require much more research.
The selected
countries are all included in the Worldbank Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) with vastly
different economic rankings. New Zealand
achieved the highest Knowledge Economy score, closely followed by Australia,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, whereas Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar score lowest in
all categories (ICT, education, economic incentive and institutional regime, innovation).
Other key indicators relevant for Open Data development are the Corruption Perception
Index (Transparency International), the World Internet Statistics and the
Democracy Index (EIU) as a measure for general governance and functioning of
government ..."